The Weaponmaster
by Vicarious117
Summary: The story of an Aman and his two companions on their first visit to the Island of Dawn, during the tragic 1st Expedition. Story is based in the world of TERA, no category for it yet however, so it's "Misc" for now .


"Are we there yet!"

Karoo said for the thousandth time since their ship left the docks of Velika earlier that day. The little Elin with her squirrel tail wasn't exactly what one would consider the patient type, she couldn't even sit still in their corner of the ship. The large Aman, Ryld, and his two companions Karoo the excitable Elin and Mairi, a calm and level headed human woman, had jumped on the first ship they could as soon as they had heard the Valkyon Federation was looking for volunteers to investigate and explore the recently risen Island of Dawn.

"Just look for yourself Karoo," Mairi responded.

Karoo sighed, "You don't remember! I'm too short to see over the railings, still!"

"Quiet down you two, you're upsetting the other passengers," Ryld said, "again!"

With that Ryld offered the flustered Karoo a lift to take a peak over the vast sea before them. She wouldn't see anything of course, but they needed some time to rest up before they landed and Karoo was making resting quite difficult.

The three companions had known each other for a long time, working as mercenaries for the Valkyon Federation on many occasions.

Ryld was a former soldier, with his battle axe he proved a very effective vanguard in many battles against the local devas and orcans surrounding Kaiator. He was eventually promoted to a commanding rank, called a Weaponmaster, where he performed admirably for many years, but he eventually resigned. On a particularly difficult mission he led a small squad into a devan encampment in an attempt to quickly behead the group, but they were spotted and he lost over half of his troupe before they managed to escape. It was just a run of bad luck that got them caught, but he didn't take the losses very well none-the-less and resigned thinking that he was no longer fit to lead. He packed up his essentials and left the next morning, with no particular destination in mind.

"I don't see anything!" Karoo complained.

"Well we warned you Karoo, didn't we?" quipped Mairi.

"You did not!"

"Hush you two," Ryld scolded, taking his typical fatherly role among the group, "just keep an eye out little one, we can't be too far away now." Ryld sat down with his back to the railing and let Karoo climb up and sit on his hunched shoulders, looking out behind him.

Karoo had always been trouble, even back as far as her early childhood. She had shown great promise as a sorcerer, which was noticed by her mentors when she set a fellow student on fire just because she didn't like her hair. She has a tendency to quickly become volatile however, so even though her superiors wished to hone her skills none of them wanted to personally deal with her, so she was released from her training slightly early. With that she set off to perform her races duty, nurture and protect all of nature.

And hopefully not burn down an entire forest in the process.

Ryld had fallen asleep and was starting to lean dangerously far to his right and the little elin atop his shoulders was beginning to worry.

"Mairi, could you wake the big guy up?"

The human cracked one eye open, took in her fellow's situation, and laughed.

"Why not just get off, fur ball?"

Karoo huffed up at the remark, "well if you must know he's pinned my leg against the railing."

"Then you wake him up."

"Well…" the elin paused, "I'd feel bad, and you're a bitch anyway, so you do it!"

Mairi frowned, "hmph, I'm definitely not helping you now!"

Mairi has and always will be a sword for hire, or more like two swords for hire. She's wielded her dual blades for gold for as long as anyone can remember, and those that remember also know not to get in her way. She's calm, calculating, and level headed, often using sly tactics and tricks to get her jobs done, preferring to avoid straight up brutality and violence. Even so, she's never been afraid to get her blades wet, and when she does she never holds any remorse for her victims.

Karoo threw her hands up and started yelling "What do you mean..… uh oh!"

Karoo's subtle shift in weight when she made her hand gestures was enough to set Ryld on his final decent.

Mairi looked on in amusement as Ryld slowly, and if he was awake she would've also though dramatically, slide down to the floor boards. Karoo still had her leg stuck between the railings and Ryld's pauldron, so the flailing motions she made to try and escape Mairi could only describe as hysterical.

With a loud crack Ryld connected with the floor boards, followed shortly by a softer thump as Karoo also connected just behind the Aman.

He opened his eyes and was just a little confused to find himself on his side and Karoo struggling to squeeze out from behind him.

The three of them had come together by mere circumstance, a simple case of being in the wrong place at the right time. Ryld was slowly making his way to Velika, he wasn't certain of his future but he figured if he was to find a new calling it would be in the City of Wheels.

Karoo was likewise on her way to Velika. She had grown increasingly bored with her job of "protecting nature" as the days went by without having to fight or defend a single thing, so she was hoping to enlist in the Valkyon Federation as a soldier, it just had to be more interesting then where she currently was!

On the outskirts of the Velika Wilds a logging company was having some trouble with the local fauna so they hired some mercenaries to guard their camp and escort them as they transported their precious goods. Mairi was among this group, and her job was usually to patrol the logger's encampment.

The elin was the first to find it though, the matriarch fimbrilisk. She had been aimlessly following small animals through the woods of Poporia and into the Veila Wilds, and she hadn't taken note of the giant fimbrilisk as she accidentally walked right into its nest, that is until it let out a ferocious roar that could have made the most stoic of Baraka cry. She squealed and began to run back into the denser part of the woods in the hopes that the furious mother would lose track of her, but she didn't get too far before she stumbled and fell. Realizing there was no escape anymore she spun on the giant lizard like creature releasing a torrent of fire into its face just before it got close enough to bite down on her. Shocked, it lurched back to recover its senses, and Karoo began to charge up for a more devastating fire attack, but before she could get it off the fimbrilisk spun and its tail leveled the little elin.

Mairi had heard the roar and gone to see what could have caused such a ferocious response. She was venturing dangerously far from her original route, but due to the boredom she had been enduring on patrol duty she couldn't resist the urge for some action. She came to a clearing closer to the edge of the forest and saw what appeared to be a little girl with a squirrel tail being squashed by the bigger tail of the much bigger fimbrilisk, which was big compared to other fimbrilisks much less an elin!

Drawing her blades she sprinted at the creature as fast as she could, not too save the elin but because she had been dying for a challenge and this was her chance for some excitement.

The creature he turned around by this point and was lowering its head to swallow the poor semi-conscious Karoo, the perfect opening. Just before it got its head low enough to scoop up the miniature invader a pair of blades plunged into its right eye socket. The fimbrilisk lurched back in surprise and pain, trying to shake this new assailant free, but Mairi was a stubborn one and held on, letting go at this point would have sent her flying back into the woods. Growing more desperate by the second the matriarch began jumping about in an attempt to force the blades out, and eventually collided head long into a large tree. Mairi was thrown forward into the branches before them by the force of the impact and barely missed hitting a solid tree trunk head first. She landed hard but rolled with it, coming up ready for the giant lizard, but it never came.

The impact had dazed the fimbrilisk and it had stumbled off, back to the recovering Karoo. The elin didn't want anything to do with this creature, never did, so she began to high tail it out of there, attempting to run past it and into the woods where it had hit its head in an attempt to confuse it further. However, just before she reached the trees a human woman came flying out and they collided with each other.

"Hey, aren't you the rodent that got this thing riled up?" asked the human.

Karoo's face lit up with fury at the insult, "what do you mean rodent!"

"Well you look half squirrel, and squirrels are rodents, yes?"

The elin jumped up and just about blasted this insolent woman square in the jaw with a fireball, but before she even started it they were both swept aside by a massive claw.

The fimbrilisk had recovered and it hadn't forgotten about the intruder or the one that had blinded its right eye, coming on more ferocious then before.

The women dodged aside as it came charging at them, barely avoiding being trampled. Mairi came on fast, attacking with as much strength and precision as she could muster, while Karoo tried freezing it in place. It spun around faster than the mercenary had anticipated and it knocked her away with its forearm, then quickly turned at the smaller of the two and shot out some kind of energy based projectile. Not anticipating this Karoo took the full force of the hit and was laid low instantly.

Mairi attempted to get back in but has then also hit with a projectile, she managed to dodge the brunt of the attack but it still sent her flying backwards.

Finally, the fimbrilisk would get its meal and be done with the first annoying creature, it was lying still on the ground unable to move away or counter attack, and the one with the blades was still dazed so she wouldn't get in the way this time. Thinking it had won it once again lowered its head to swallow up its prize.

It got its massive jaws close enough to the elin that it could almost taste her, so enthralled was it that the giant axe that embedded itself in the creatures skull didn't even register at first.

Ryld had side tracked from his original course, wanting to go hunting by himself for a while before turning over his new leaf for good, so he made his way to the Velika Wilds. Hearing the roar of a mother fimbrilisk he knew someone was in deep trouble, no regular animal of the woods would ever venture so close to a matriarchs nest, so he knew it had to be a naïve adventurer or hunter. He had cleared the edge of the clearing in time to see the human woman get blasted away by the fimbrilisks attack, and then he saw it turn on an unconscious elin. He dashed forward as fast as he could, drawing his axe for a battle once more and swung vertically with all his might, axe landing atop his new opponents head.

He retracted his axe before the matriarch could rear back and take it with her, and when she did he lunged forward once again burying his axe in the creature. It lurched forward as the weapon plunged into its abdomen and clapped its claws together over this new threat, a heavily armored aman. The blow stunned Ryld for a second, long enough for the fimbrilisk to jump back freeing itself from the axe. It was furious now, not only had its home been invaded but it had been severely injured in several places.

It stared down at the aman, who was now standing defensively infront of the elin. He was not moving, not retreating, and not attacking. It circled them for a second before slowly backing away, it had enough of this fight and it had to return to its young, but as the fimbrilisk began to turn Mairi landed on its back, driving both swords down through the scales.

"No, you fool!" Ryld shouted. He had purposefully stood in a defensive and non aggressive stance in an attempt to show the matriarch he, and this elin, meant it no harm. This human was an idiot and he wouldn't risk his life and that of the unconscious elins behind him to try and save her, so he scooped up the little one and began to cautiously back into the forest.

Mairi caught this from the corner of her eye, "cowards!" she shouted after them.

The fimbrilisk reached back and swatted at her and she landed on her feet several yards away. The mercenary knew she was outmatched on her own, so she ran back into the forest as fast as she could, and surprisingly the matriarch didn't follow. She felt very unsatisfied, she had missed her kill. Mairi, not one to leave before finishing her business set off after the aman and elin, she may not get to kill a matriarch fimbrilisk, but she'd kill an aman.


End file.
